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Monday, May 5, 2008

To clone or not to clone?

Dear Readers,With sci-fi fiction and fantasy books making an all-time high in popular culture nowadays, we thought you might be interested to hear about the latest scientific research that could affect your pets. The following article represents a breakthrough in modern technology, and is from the News24 website if you wish to pursue the topic further. Enjoy!

Seoul - A South Korean biotech company is offering dog owners the chance toclone their pet through a service that can cost up to $148 000 (R1.1m) fora puppy.RNL Bio, affiliated with the South Korean lab that produced theworld's first cloned canine, expects to deliver its first cloned dog in about ayear to a US woman in her 50s who saved biological material from her beloved pitbull that recently died."These days, dogs are treated like family members.There are many owners who would rather clone a favourite pet than adopt a newone after it dies," said RNL Bio President Ra Jeong-chan.RNL Bio isaffiliated with the team at Seoul National University (SNU) that produced theworld's first cloned dog, which has been verified through independent testing.The same SNU lab has been implicated in a scandal for deliberatelyfabricating data in separate studies on human embryonic stem cells.RNLexpects it can clone about 30 pet dogs a year at present and increase thatnumber to about 200 by 2010, with costs going down as the cloning technologyincreases in efficiency, Ra said.Costs will dropLee Byeong-chun, theSeoul National University professor who has led previous canine cloningprojects, said of the partnership: "Within one or two years, we will see costsdrop to a reasonable level."Dogs are considered one of the most difficultmammals to clone because of their unpredictable reproductive cycle as well asdifficulties in inducing ovulation and fertilising eggs in the lab.RNL andthe university lab have also teamed up to clone drug-sniffing dogs, seeing-eyedogs and other types of dogs used by governments and charities at a much cheaperrate than for pet owners, they said.The Korea Customs Service said it hassigned a memorandum of understanding with the team for cloning drug-sniffingdogs.The SNU lab was once led by disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk, who isnow standing trial on charges of fraud, embezzlement and violating the country'sbioethics laws.